You are about to embark on the most exciting undertaking of your life: publishing a cookbook! You’ll soon learn that writing a cookbook really is a fun, exciting, and challenging project—more than you can imagine. Just like me, you can publish your own best-selling cookbook. What if you ask me if I think publishing a cookbook is worth the time and effort? You bet I do!
My Cookbook, Fit to Cook – Why ‘waist’ time in the kitchen? it sold over 250,000 copies (I might add that less than 10% of those sales come from bookstores). However, I wasted a great deal of time, going back and struggling to sell all those books because I didn’t have a complete understanding of the publishing industry and the process of marketing a cookbook at first.
Before you rack your brains figuring out how to write a cookbook, and more importantly, how to publish a cookbook, take some time to thoroughly research why and what you’re writing about, who you’re writing for, and when. better. time to launch your book.
Whether you want to get published or self-publish your cookbook, the same basics apply: You need a good understanding of the publishing industry. Without the basics, will you know if your contracts are in order, that your book is the best it can be, and that your cookbook marketing plan is actually an effective strategy? No, but knowledge is power. It is crucial that you take enough time to educate yourself on the entire publishing industry.
Understanding book publishing and marketing will help you clearly identify why you are writing a cookbook. Maybe you’re writing a cookbook just to record secret family recipes or to have all your favorite recipes in book format; maybe you are writing a cookbook for a community or church fundraiser; o Best of all, your goal is to create a bestseller. Cookbooks that are written for a very small group don’t require business and marketing plans because you already know how many books will be bought and who the buyers are. However, if you plan to publish your own cookbook for mass markets, you need to understand that you’ve gone from author to publisher. That means you are now a business person whose primary goal is creating a product to sell. There is no point in printing a book that no one will want to buy.
When I started writing my own cookbook, I naively thought it would be a two or three month process, and before long I would have a book on every bookstore shelf in the country. Ha ha ha, giggle, giggle… Experience is a great educator, but who says you have to learn the hard way? I obviously had no idea how to publish a cookbook at first! However, through this article and the publishing course that my partners and I have created, I intend to help you avoid wasting time and money.
How did I create such a successful cookbook? The short answer is research, research, research, and then more research. Fortunately I had the wisdom to do the research before printing it. But the investigation can and did take years.
In my experience, after learning how to write a cookbook, I had to learn everything about cookbook publishing:
Copyright
trademarks
ISBN numbers
cataloging in publication data
print terms such as cover material, bindings, signatures, and blue lines
learn how to get print quotes (crucial to knowing how many books you can afford to print)
barcodes
graphic design (makes the difference between big sales and no sales)
edit (you can’t, and I mean you can’t, do it yourself, friends or family)
headings and subheadings (can make or break a book)
title search (avoid duplicating someone else’s title)
distribution
Next, I had to learn about starting a business:
business plan
incorporation
toll free numbers
corporate logos and identity
websites
shipping arrangements
accounting principles
The most important thing to be wise about marketing:
write a plan
research contest
understanding of target markets
going through the difficult but crucial process of choosing a book title
discover the importance of a book cover, both the front and back covers, and how to design the cover
looking for buyers outside bookstores
learning the importance of advertising
discover the essential need for a stellar media kit and how to create one
approach to the media and the importance of a good publicist
I learned, and will share with you, a key point to consider when you are figuring out how to write a cookbook. Before you even start writing your cookbook, you need to identify your target market. Who will actually buy your cookbook? It’s amazing that so many authors think that “everyone” will want their book, but that’s not the case. Not “everyone” is a target for nothing! – Not even the Bible.
Know who will actually buy your book. Interviewing the owners of cookbook stores and specialty kitchen stores can help you identify cookbook trends so you know what people are really buying. It’s also a good idea to think about corporations and organizations that could benefit from using your book as a promotional item. Approach them before they even go to print by offering them special discounts, opportunities to place their information in a special print of the book, publicizing opportunities to offer your cookbook as a “freebie” with the purchase of your product, just to name a few. some cookbook marketing ideas.
If your cookbook is aimed at busy families, the recipes should be easy to prepare in a short period of time; if it’s aimed at gourmet cooks, the recipes should be of the quality you’d expect in a four- or five-star restaurant; if it is aimed at a specific ethnic group, the recipes must be authentic; But if you’re targeting the mass market, your cookbook should be very broad in scope with mouth-watering recipes, and the ingredients should be readily available in grocery stores.
Once you’ve identified who will buy your book, you can target your marketing plan and book design with your customers in mind, for example:
· Where do they buy?
· Where do they play?
· What style of book appeals to you? – (investigate your competition closely).
What price are they willing to pay?
· How many pictures do you want in a cookbook? (lack of photos can kill book sales)
· What colors attract you? (spending time in bookstores and libraries, learning which books have the most appealing appearance)
· What book size is currently popular?
· What type of bookbinding increases sales?
Are they worried about health or other problems?
· Do they appreciate the little stories, jokes, cooking tips, or other information in the book?
Sometimes he would take two steps forward and then he would have to take one back, but other times he would take one step forward and two steps back. Don’t waste time like I did, use my experiences to your advantage. Once you understand the basics, you can start putting your cookbook publishing and marketing plans into action.
Of course, a cookbook has special challenges that other books may not. Their main goal is to provide people with unique and delicious recipes that they can successfully create in their own homes. That means you have to measure exactly and your instructions have to be clear and simple. You’ll have to try each recipe over and over again until it turns out perfect every time, then you’ll have to recruit other people to make those recipes independently of you. No matter what your feedback is, you should take your testers’ criticism to heart because if they don’t achieve great results, chances are good that your customers won’t be happy with their “failures.” Finally, it’s a good idea to have a professional home economist or other food expert test the recipes.
Depending on the focus of your cookbook, you may want to include nutritional information, such as calories and fat content. Fortunately, there is now computer software that will do the math for you. You must also provide an index at the end of the book, and luckily there is software available for this task as well.
Food photography is a special challenge in itself, requiring a lot of tricks to make it look appealing. A good food photographer is a vital part of your cookbook publishing team. Close attention must be paid to every detail, from the peppercorns on a plate to the bubbles at the top of a cup of coffee. Each photograph can require four hours of shooting time, if not more, so plan adequate time for the photo session.
The services of a food stylist are very helpful, but with research you can do much of the food styling yourself. Find as many books as you can on the subject and practice before the photo shoot. I learned simple tricks like:
sandpaper sticker to the plate to prevent food from slipping
use whipped frosting or shaving cream instead of ice cream or whipped cream
place a shot glass under a very thick slice of lemon to prevent the lemon from absorbing the liquid underneath
using beef broth instead of “coffee”
using dish detergent to create bubbles in the “coffee”
use a torch to make meat appear cooked
And the list goes on…
The food style is a lot of fun, but it requires a huge amount of time, even before the photo shoot. You’ll need all of your “accessories” in place, such as plates, cutlery, flowers, table linens, food, and backgrounds. Many companies will be happy to lend you these items in exchange for a book credit; this may appear on the cataloging-in-publication data page at the beginning of your book.
When your book is ready to print, it’s time to kick-start your cookbook advertising and marketing campaign:
Decide the best time of year to launch your book. September is usually the best month for Christmas sales, but you also face some stiff competition. Try to think of a time that is appropriate for your book, such as January for a healthy eating book, late spring for a barbecue book, Valentine’s Day for a romance book, Heart & Stroke Month for a book on a healthy heart, etc.
· Produce gallery prints.
Submit galleys to the appropriate book clubs (check their websites for submission requirements).
Find appropriate catalogs and send them galleys.
Have your publisher approach magazines that review cookbooks (magazines have long lead times).
· Keep in touch with any businesses and organizations that may use your book for promotions.
Find a reputable distributor to get your book accepted by the bookstore trade as well as other retailers.
· Contact book sellers other than bookstores.
When your book is ready to roll off the press, launch your advertising campaign. You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. The easy part is over: advertising and marketing now become your life. This part is the most fun as now you get the rewards of all your efforts. Your goal now is to make your cookbook title a household word. Go ahead: publish your own cookbook!